SAVING FORESTS MAY WIN GLOBAL BACKING

Jeremy van Loon
BLOOMBERG/COPENHAGEN

Negotiators at the United Nations global-warming talks in Copenhagen recommended that tropical forests be protected for the first time as part of a climate change treaty.The proposal, published in a draft UN text, acknowledges that forests play an important role in moderating the amount of carbon that goes into the atmosphere. The plan will be debated this week in the negotiations that are set to end Dec. 18 with a global climate accord.

Keeping forests intact is essential to limiting Carbon dioxide emissions. Chopping down trees and leaving them to rot or bum contributes almost a fifth of global greenhouse-gas output, according to UN scientists.""Protection of natural forests appears in the text explicitly for the first time,"" said environmental group Ecosystems Climate Alliance.Delegates aim to reach an agreement to cut the emissions that the UN in 2007 called ""very likely"" the main cause of ""unequivocal"" global warming. A final draft will likely be completed today, according to Victoria Tauli-Corpuz, the chairwoman of the UN Permanent Forum on Indigenous Issues.

Negotiators may use an arrangement known as REDD, or Reducing Emissions from Deforestation and Forest Degradation, which is being negotiated at the climate talks. The mechanism provides funding to protect trees, giving an incentive for landowners to leave them standing.Deforestation has showed signs of slowing in Brazil as land owners anticipate getting money from saving their trees, said Dan Neps-tad, a tropical ecologist and senior scientist at the Woods Hole Research Center.

Destruction of rainforests in Brazil declined to 7,000 square kilometers this year from 27,000 square kilometers in 2005.""Were seeing the first signs of REDD influencing behavior,"" said Nepstad. ""Producers are watching and hoping land takes on value.""The greatest pressure on forest land is from agriculture, especially soy bean production. Brazil is expected to account for 60 percent of the expected 100 million-ton increase in soy output by 2020, from a total of about 250 million tons now, Nepstad said.